Currently, the majority of ice cream consumption at home concerns products bought frozen at the point of sales. There are several drawbacks such as the need to transport the products at home rapidly in order to keep them at the frozen state, the need to store them in a freezer and the limited number of flavors available considering standard freezer volume. Additionally, the texture of such product is rather hard and far from the freshly made ice cream.
An alternative solution available today is the use of an ice cream machine to produce fresh ice cream. Thereby, although the obtained texture of the resulting product is more satisfactory, the preparation procedure by means of the known ice-cream machines has several drawbacks.
In particular, all the ingredients must be mixed previously, the volume of such machines corresponds usually to five or more serving portions of the same flavor and the time necessary is about a half an hour. Moreover, the ingredients necessary for the preparation come in contact with a large number of parts of the preparation machine (e.g. a stirrer, tanks, or a dispenser), which all have to be cleaned.
Other alternatives imply a preparation at ambient temperature before the freezing phase in a standard freezer. Hence, they are also time consuming and require cleaning tasks.
US 2006/0263490 relates to a frozen confectionary maker comprising a cup holder for removably receiving a cup with a cavity in its wall and base for receiving freezable solution. The cup of the confectionary maker is designed to serve for the preparation and serving of the cup.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,878,021 relates to an ice-cream maker comprising a blade arranged in a double-walled container, and a housing containing a driving mechanism that can generate a blade-rotating movement in relation to the double-walled container, the double-walled container comprising an external wall and an internal wall defining a housing containing a phase changing mixture having a fusion range extending at least partially below 0° C. The inner wall forms a tub, and the blade having the form of a spoon is used to scrape the inner wall.
AU 2011/236097 relates to a frozen beverage device which comprises a container and sealable cover to convert a liquid, such as a non-alcoholic or alcoholic beverage into an at least semi-frozen slurry containing ice crystals. Thereby, freezing devices comprising, e.g. a cubical or spherical shape and which contain refrigerant, are placed in the container such as to form ice crystals on a deformable wall of the freezing devices. By means of agitation due to shaking, rotating or squeezing the container and/or the cover, at least a partial freezing of the liquid provided within the container is obtained.
WO 2010/149509 relates to a system for preparing a frozen confectionary, the system comprising a cylindrical container designed for being inserted into a dedicated preparation device, said container comprising at least one scraper arranged movable within the container and said container containing ingredients for producing a frozen confection when being cooled and moved. The device of the system comprises a cylindrically formed container holder being equipped with a heat exchange surface designed for being in tight contact with the container when being placed in the container holder.
This system however suffers the drawback that due to the cylindrical shape of the container, effective cooling is strongly dependent on an accurate fitting of the cylindrical container in the container holder of the machine and thus cannot be assured.
Based on the known prior art, an ice cream machine respectively a system is sought after which enables a consumer to eat fresh ice-cream at home, without the necessity to follow the chain of cold and to carry out extensive cleaning steps of the machine. In addition, it is desirable to provide a solution for preparing ice-cream at home in a short time. Further, a solution is sought after which enables effective cooling of the container by the machine.